Chapter 8: Chapter 8

One week later...

Grrrr...grrrr...grrrr

I'm pulled out of sleep by the sound of the alarm.

"Oh please, don't tell me it's six already," I whine, shutting it off and shifting for comfort. My eyes open fully when I feel something cold and hard press against my bare tummy. I pick it up and it's my phone.

Placing my right index finger on the fingerprint sensor, the screen lights up making me squint. I discover, as my eyes adjust to the brightness, that my mobile data is turned on and I have some unread chats. Memories of the long period of time I had spent on social media hours ago make me groan. That's why I feel like a log.

"This is why I don't like to stay up late," I mumble, trying to hold back a yawn. Even Jasper whom I thought was capable of spending the whole night awake went offline at around 1:30am. Don't ask me why I'm comparing myself to Jasper.

I try stretching but it's either my bones died or they just upped and left because I can't even lift an arm properly.

Groaning, I fling the phone on the bed and cringe as it topples over the edge and hits the carpeted floor. Sorry.

Stumbling out of bed, I manage to drag my legs to the bathroom to get my toothbrush. I brush my teeth lying on the bed. Yup, that's how much I need my beauty sleep. By 6:50am, I have managed to dress up but remain seated on my bed.

"6:50? Hmm. The time must have stayed up late too; seems tired," I muse aloud. A sharp knock on the door gains my attention. I wish Nes was sedated. No offense, sis. Another knock. I frown slightly.

What entity is controlling her? She's knocking reasonably.

"Don't tell me Belle's also in a coma," a voice comes from outside. My eyes widen. I forgot I had brothers. I face palm myself and get up to go and open the door.

"Jason? What's up?" I ask, grateful it's the reasonable twin.

"I came to call you guys for breakfast but it seems Nes is in a coma," he enunciates, pointing behind himself at Nes' door.

My heart drops into my stomach. I DIDN'T MEAN IT!

"Belle, are you okay? You better not die!" He pokes my cheek and I realize that I've been blinking profusely. I rush past him toward her door and hit my fist on it loudly.

The doorknob twists and the door is pulled inwards. Relief washes over me when I see Nes standing behind it but it's short lived as my eyes roam all over her. Pyjamas?

"Are you okay?" I ask, half expecting her to say she saw me trying to choke her in her dreams. They say there is power in the tongue but I really hope mine is impotent.

"Cramps," she states in a hoarse voice. I sigh but then frown at my own idiosyncrasy.

"So, no school for you today," I state and she sighs, letting go of the door and walking tardily toward her bed.

I move to enter but Jason's voice stops me.

"What's wrong?" he asks, trying to look inside.

"She's not well. Tell mum she has the girl-thing," I instruct, already expecting him to ask what girl-thing means.

Contrary to my thoughts, he nods in understanding and walks away. I love you, Jason. If I had to deal with Alex, I would have been the one to slip into a coma.

"I feel like shit," Nes comments from behind me and I turn to her with an understanding smile.

"I know. But you'll be fine." I totally don't. I don't get lucifer-sent cramps and a lot of nausea during my period.

"I feel like puking right now. My entire lower abdomen feels like a tractor ran over it," she complains in a strained voice as she coils up in pain. The door opens before I can say anything and mum walks in, looking concerned.

"Sweetie, how do you feel? I brought you pills and food," she says in a soothing voice. The voice is so soothing, it feels like she trying to make friends with an insecure alien. I grimace.

"Speaking of bringing pills and food, how come last week I didn't get any food when I was writhing in pain?" I question, thinking back to two Sundays ago.

Mum rolls her eyes at me and says, "so that you would just puke all over the floor and lie there for me to clean it up."

"Oh, you know it's only bread that does that," I retort. She gives me a blank look and I cross my arms stubbornly, even though I know deep down that I would have puked if I ate anything at all. It always happens when I get a stomach ache.

"Who's sick now?" Dad asks, walking into the room.

"Morning dad," Nes and I greet in unison. He goes to sit beside her on the bed and feels her forehead.

"Mum, I have a bad headache," someone says from the door. Who doesn't know it's Alex? He walks in, tilting his head to look at Nes and she does the same.

"What happened to you? Did you get run over by a tractor or something?" He asks, earning a glare from everyone. He raises his hands in surrender.

"No one with such a headache would still have such a sharp tongue," mum chides.

"Okay I'm serious about the headache."

"Alex, don't try to make up an excuse to skip school. Go and take some pills and you'll be fine," dad admonishes. He sighs and turns to me with a funny look on his face. Before he can rain floods of annoying words on me, I step out of the room.

Downstairs, he takes some aspirin and sits to relax until we are ready to go.

"Hmm, I didn't think you were serious back there," I confess. He stares blankly at me and I move to defend the notion, "hey! You never fall sick. I thought you were trying to stay home with Nes."

Closing his eyes, he responds in his characteristic nonchalance, "nope. Even if I stay at home, I won't go near her. She'll kill me."

I cackle at his words. A few seconds of silence pass before Jason comes out with dad.

"Time to go, everyone. Nes will be okay," dad assures everyone. "And Alex, are you better?"

"Yeah," he answers sharply and gets up to leave. Dad shakes he head at me as we watch him bounce out of the house. What a delightful ball of sunshine... An annoying one actually.

“See you later, dad.” I follow my brothers out.

About fifteen minutes later, we are at the parking lot of St. Stephen's high school―my brothers' school.

"Bye! See you little brats later," I yell as they step out of the car. As usual, each one sends me his own smart comeback and I laugh heartily alongside Mr. Joseph as we watch them go. He starts the engine and is about drive off when I stop him.

I poke my head out of the window, trying to get a better look at my brothers. Jason appears to be holding Alex by the arm and talking to him. Okay, my brothers don't love each other enough to hold each other like that. At last, Jason lets go.

Opening my mouth to shout mocking words at them, the words vanish into thin air as I watch Alex slowly drop to the ground. Alarmed, Jason tries to catch him but is too late. The next thing I know, the few students around are running toward them to help.

Mr. Joseph is running toward them too, but he's yelling something at me. It takes me a few seconds to realize that he's telling me to call dad and not mum.

I jump out of the car with his phone and start trying to dial dad's number. With the way my hands are shaking, I fear I won't be able to contact anyone. After a few laborious attempts to do something reasonable with the phone, I finally get to dad.

"Hello?" his deep voice comes from the other side.

"Dad!" I shout but stop myself from saying more.

"Isabella? What's wrong? Where―" he starts but I cut him off.

"Dad please make sure you are alone. I don't want to upset mum. And Nes," I plead with him and hear shuffling in the background.

"I'm alone," he says calmly.

"Okay," I breathe out, trying to find the right words to use so as to not make him think Alex is dead. "Alex collapsed."

***

"And then the electrode passes through the anode and... goes..."

"What are you saying?" Lima asks, gaining Alice's attention from where she's standing.

Alice blinks and clears her throat.

"I'm your teacher. You don't ask me such questions," she states, trying to use a male's voice.

Sighing, Melody turns to face me from where she is seated. "Look Belle, you don't have to be so worried. Everything's fine now."

Lima clears her throat, saying, "Why do I get the feeling that this is you..." she points at Melody. "...trying to assure yourself that everything is fine?"

I chuckle when Alice nods her head in affirmation.

"What? No. Seriously it's obvious that she is worried," she defends, pointing at me. She has a point there, though. Alex was resuscitated a few minutes after he collapsed at the school clinic.

The incident turned out to be nothing serious. It was just attributed to stress and the headache he had. Now it's Wednesday and I'm still a little worried. Don't blame me. It's my nature.

"U-huh," Alice says.

"Look girls, he's been fine since then okay..." Lima starts. "So, let's just―geez, could this day get any more boring?" She complains as Diana and her 'babes' walk into the class. Alice groans under her breath as they walk toward us.

"Well, well, well. The L group. Hey losers," Diana taunts and her friends giggle beside her.

"Ugh. You know, I was doing a really good job trying to fix the atmosphere here but you had to ruin everything," Lima states with an irritated expression.

"Oh, Limy, how unfortunate. I can understand. Anyhow, Isabella, how are you today? You don't look so bright," Diana says in her fake British accent and her friends giggle. Why do they keep giggling like that? It's creepy.

Shaking my head, I reply, "look, I'm not in the mood for your craze right now so please just leave." My statement seems to have pressed a button in Diana because the next thing I hear is my own yelp as she takes hold of my hair and yanks hard.

Before I can even contemplate my next move, a fight has broken out. Lima is slapping Diana repeatedly across the face, Alice is shoving Bose back as she tries to hit Halima from behind and Melody has a death grip on Chiny's shirt as she glares daggers at her. The sudden chaos and revelation of my clique's violent side renders me speechless as well as transfixed to the spot.

But then I'm forced into action when Chelsea, having seen the chaos from the door, rushes to push Lima. Grabbing her collar with one hand, I try to hold her back with the other but before it makes impact, my shoulder is rammed into the nearby wall by someone else. What? Turns out we are outnumbered.

The moment I regain composure, I shove the girl hard with anger and everything turns into a full-blown riot. Everything happens so fast that the next thing I know is I'm being forced back by strong arms. I look and realise it's Ousman. His face is so close to mine, I'm having a hard time understanding what he's saying.

He suddenly stops and stares at me tentatively. Am I in a romance novel? And just then, when I think something is about to happen, reality strikes and he's pulled back by none other than the devil's mistress. Diana.

"Look what they did to me!" She whines, probably hoping he'll pay attention to her. Why is every girl vying for his attention? That’s a stupid question. I know why.

"Serves you right, bitch," someone yells and of course it's Lima. It's now I figure that when Lima is seeing red, she does not have the time to seek for attention or flirt.

"What happened?" Ousman asks no one in particular. I look around to see some other boys standing. One of them, maybe her boyfriend, is holding Chelsea really close and trying to calm her down. Two others are laughing and saying something about how they didn't know that slay queens could fight that well.

"And what's going on here?" Miss Edna, the disciplinary teacher, walks in with a stern look on her face. One of the 'weaklings', as they call the good students, of the class must have called her.

"These girls just attacked me and my friends," Chelsea says immediately. Okay what? Of course, she would lie. After all she's Diana's closest friend.

"Oh, shut up. You weren't even in the class then," Melody retorts.

"Look what they did to me!" Diana yells, turning her head to reveal red marks on both cheeks. I almost laugh at the redness of her eyes. Looks like Lima dealt with this one well.

"Enough. To my office now, all of you," she orders, motioning for us to get out of the class. Before leaving, I catch a glimpse of Ousman staring at me but I choose to ignore it and focus on the trouble I just succeeded in landing myself in.

Miss Edna does not follow us to her office so we are made to wait for about five minutes outside the office. Five minutes for me, though seem to stretch for eternity because I don't want to be seen in front of the 'trouble' office.

It's called ‘trouble’ because whoever is found lingering in front of it or is called into it is in some kind of trouble. And I don't have any intentions of gaining myself a bad reputation or being the talk of the school in any way.

Miss Edna walks towards us with her signature stern look and Chelsea hisses. I gasp inaudibly.

Is she insane? I'm already in enough trouble! Luckily, the teacher does not hear it.

Once in the office, she sends us death glares and says something that knocks the air out of me, "you're all suspended."